The Forge of Legend

Chapter 3

It's almost pitch black out here, except for a lamp held by Mikhail and one held by Koji. We are treading carefully through the rough, uneven terrain. After walking for about half an hour Koji leads us into a cave. With the lamps lighting the sides of the large cave I can see things carved into a stone. I look at a moon shaped one that looks like it's made from waves.
Mikhail and Amilia are also looking around. Mikhail holds the lamp that he's holding up to one of the carvings. It's the picture of the man that Koji showed us. He starts to trace the outline of it. As soon as he touches it though, everything starts glowing blue and a large, circle-like, cut-out is opened at the end of the cave. The cave starts to shake, and rocks start falling around us. I tried and ran for the exit, but a large heap of rocks fell, blocking our only way out. The only other way to go is through the circle- like opening in the back of the cave. Amilia seems scared and she doesn't seem to want to move so as I'm running back there, I grab her arm and pull her along with me. I watch as Shin, Koji and Mikhail enter the opening and then disappear. I hesitate before going through, but I realize that it's probably safer through there than in here. I ran in and Amilia followed next to me.
I feel the Earth shift under me and suddenly I'm falling. I try and reach out for anything to grab onto, but there's nothing. I can still see the top of the cave above me. I land in deep water. At first, I had a hard time finding which way was up. But once I do, I slowly swim up, my head pounding from holding my breath. A gasp large amounts of air as I resurface and then start coughing, trying to get the water I inhaled by accident out of my lungs. I can see Koji and Mikhail on the side of the water, breathing heavily.
I see Amilia surface next to me and she starts to cough as well. I started to swim toward Koji and Mikhail, seeing Shin coming out of the water behind them. I'm almost to them when behind me I hear Amilia yell something before being promptly cut off. "HE- "She shrieks.
I turned around just in time to see her hand disappear quickly under the water. I spun around looking for her, waiting for her to come back above the water. But she doesn't. I feel something slowly wrapped around my leg and I'm pulled under before I can yell for any help. I'm struggling and kicking my legs around, trying to get whatever has a hold on me to let me go. I start kicking it. My throat starts to burn, begging for me to take a breath. Suddenly the thing lets go of me and someone is pulling me back up to the surface. When we finally got up there, I took a large breath and opened my eyes. The person holding me pulls towards the edge of the water and sets me down. Amilia is next to me coughing as Mikhail sits against the wall breathing heavily. I close my eyes and lower my head, my hair pulling in a wet, tangly mess on my shoulders. I breathe a sigh of relief.
"What is the place?" Mikhail asks no one particle, his voice glistening with amazement. I look up and all around me. The walls have little specks of a glowing blue dust, and the ceiling has beautiful diamonds hanging down from it. It seems as if everything twinkles or shimmers in here, even the water. I stood up and helped Amilia up.
She coughs a little more. "You ok Ami?" I question. She nods. I see Koji walk by me and my head follows. Shin is ahead of him, and it seems like they are walking towards nothing, but then I see the little, square shaped door, hidden a little behind a large rock with diamonds sticking out of it. I look at Mikhail, but he just raises his eyebrow and follows them, Amilia following behind him.
We all climb through the small opening on all fours. Inside is a large, blue platform with a white rim and a glowing barrier. Mikhail and Koji both approach each other, even though they are standing as far apart from each other as possible and glaring at one and other. Me and Amilia look at each other and we both roll our eyes. I can see Shin grinning at us from the corner of my eye. My gaze shifts over to his and we make eye contact. His smile lowers slowly. I turn back around to see what Mikhail and Koji are doing. They seem to be... Racing?
They're both running towards the platform very quickly, Koji just a little bit ahead of Mikhail. Koji reaches it first and he leans against it cockily. Mikhail reaches it soon after, although he basically runs into it. As he slams into it, the glowing barrier flickers, and then disappears. Koji falls onto his back and Mikhail falls forward onto his hands. I glance at Shin and Amilia and then run towards them. We reach the edge of the platform and Shin helps Koji and Mikhail up.
Above us a large crystal comes down, glowing a blindingly bright white light. As I look up at it, I squint and cover my eyes slightly with my arm. They start to have an intricately blowing blue design of waves, clouds, swirls and many other things. I step onto it to trace and follow the design. "This is beautiful..." Amilia says in amazement, now standing next to me.
"What is it doing here?" Shin asks, also on the platform with Koji and Mikhail standing next to him.
"No idea" I answer.
The diamond, now glowing a light blue color, grows brighter and then the force field comes up again, trapping us inside. The design that was only the floor turns a deep blue and grows larger and larger until the floor looks as if it is going to swallow us up.
And that is what it did. As soon as the entire floor was the deep blue color with white specks and many different shades of blue mixed in, we all fell through.
I couldn't see anything, only complete darkness. The only thing I could hear was my heavy breathing as I was spun and turned this way and that with no sense of direction. Then, as quickly as it happened, it was over. I lay on something soft and when my eyes adjusted, I saw beautiful rolling green hills with magnificent yellow and pink flowers in clusters all over.
I stand up and look around for everyone else. "Amilia? Mikhail!" I shouted loudly.
"Katie!" I hear someone yell back. "Where are you!"
"Ami! Where are you!!" I yelled at the voice that I immediately recognized as Amilia, my best friend. I started running toward where I thought the voice was coming from. "Amilia!"
"Kay!" She screams back. I reach the top of a hill and start spinning in every direction looking for her. On a hill a little way away from me I see Amilia in her garrison uniform, her long brown hair, now slightly tangled, blowing in the wind. Her back is turned towards me.
"Amilia!" I exclaim and start running down the hill and back up another one. When I got to the top of the hill, she was gone. I look around frantically as I scream her name. Then I hear a loud, piercing scream. "Ami!"
I ran in the direction of the scream and entered a forest that seemed to show up out of nowhere. Then as I'm running something shoots out of the trees at me and I barely have time to stop. I stand there for a second wondering what that was. But soon, things start shooting out at me and I have to dodge and duck under or around them. I quickly learn that try to move forward is not a good idea because as soon as I do something shoots out of the woods and into the side of my leg. I scream in pain. When I look down I see a large vine in my leg with blood dripping down my leg and some dripping off the vine . I grit my teeth and reach down to yank it out.
I let out a cry of pain and tears well up in my eyes. I hear a whooshing sound and I immediately step backwards, barely avoiding another large vine.
I begin to try and calm myself and not stress. If I can do that I can find a way out of this. Although, I'm not very good at calming myself. Instead I do something completely stupid and idiotic. I run straight forward, not even trying to dodge any vines. Soon enough I find a wide opening in the trees and the vines stop shooting at me. I take a deep breath and look around the clearing.
As I'm looking around I see a figure on the ground. I look at the figure and realize that they are bloody. And I know who it is.
I run forward. "Ami!"
When I reach her I see that she has a deep cut in her stomach and is very bloody. She is pale and her lips are a purple blue color. Her eyes are staring up at the sky blank. I realize she is dead.
Once the realization hits me I fall onto my knees and begin to sob uncontrollably. "Ami... Don't leave me.... Please..."
I hear someone walk up behind me and I twist around and look at them, my warm ginger hair blowing in the slight wind coming through the trees. I hear the trees rustle as I stare at a tall woman with minty green skin and forest green eyes . She stares down at me menacingly. I stand up and wipe my face off. Her eyes drift over to Amilia and then back to me and she smiles softly. "Now it's your turn." She says in a sugary voice. Her smile fades and she lifts her hand up and grabs my face in her palm and pushes me to the ground quickly and the next thing I know staring up into a cloudy sky and rain is dripping down the side of my face.
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Hey guys! Thanks for reading! As always I would love any new ideas or suggestions on how I can improve my story and how I can improve my writing personally!!